Johns Hopkins University Chapter

Message from the 2012 Directors

The InnoWorks summer camp, through a fun, innovative, exploratory, and hands-on approach, aims to spark an interest and curiosity in middle and high school students for a life-long passion to pursue various paths in the fields of science and engineering. After successfully completing a great first year of scientific exploration and academic curiosity at The Johns Hopkins University InnoWorks chapter, we are looking forward to hosting another exemplary program this year. The activities and experiments the students perform at the camp enable them to understand science and engineering from a direct and real approach rather than simply in an abstract way from a textbook. This intimate, friendly and fun engagement with science, through practical applications of scientific topics, inspires a personal curiosity to drive the learning process. As a result, students gain an understanding and appreciation of how the scientific world operates and the power of scientific knowledge in innovation and discovery.

Our focus is on students who come from an underprivileged background and lack the opportunity to learn from such a hands-on, experimental approach in their regular academic environments. This coming summer, the Hopkins Chapter hopes to provide an opportunity for additional students to develop an interest and curiosity in science, as well as to learn new scientific concepts. We are committed to hosting not only an exciting, fun-filled, and stimulating camp, but also to developing a scientific foundation and curiosity that can enable these students to pursue careers in science and engineering based on genuine interest.

The first year program of the Johns Hopkins chapter last year was a successful beginning, and we hope to continue bringing the excitement and passion of science to larger numbers of Baltimore's young students. Last year, we hosted a total of 18 students along with 12 mentors/staff. We would like to thank our students and their parents, our mentors, Johns Hopkins University, the middle schools we received students from including: Mount Royal Middle School, Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, Waldorf School of Baltimore, Barclay Elementary/Middle School, Calvert School, our advisors and sponsors: JHU Center for Social Concern, JHU Center for Educational Outreach, East Baltimore Community Affairs, and EmbroidMe. This year, with the growing interest in InnoWorks at JHU from students, parents, and school officials, we plan on doubling the size of our program, and on offering a wide variety of new activities and experiments in the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering.

If you would like to learn more about our program at Johns Hopkins University, please contact us at hopkins@innoworks.org.